Author: Bella Andre

The women he slept with always wanted to talk about things, always wanted to try and prolong their relationship.

Not Megan.

Sure, at first he’d been committed to steering clear of her. Yes, he’d thought dating her was the path to the dark side. But that was before he got to know her, before he realized she was nothing like Kate...and before he tasted Megan’s sweet lips as their bodies came together in a long, sweet burst of the purest pleasure he’d ever known.

Only, somehow, in the morning he’d been the only one rethinking their “agreement.”

All Megan could say was never and no.

Gabe had rarely heard the word no in his life. Especially not from women.

Didn’t she realize what throwing down a gauntlet like that did to a guy like him? That she might as well have issued him a direct challenge?

“How’s the powder been?”

For the first time in two days, the sky was clear blue and the sun was shining. Zach had decided to come up to his ski condo and the two of them had agreed on some ice fishing for the afternoon.

“Good.”

They didn’t say anything more during the short drive to the iced-over pond. Each grabbing a folding chair, pole, and tackle box out of the truck bed, they headed out onto the ice. They cut open two holes in the ice and sat down in front of them, their lines hanging in the freezing water.

For the first time in days, Gabe stopped to appreciate the silence. He’d always liked the mountains during winter, even navigating the sometimes rough conditions. Although, he couldn’t stop himself from thinking, he’d much rather be here with a seven-year-old who couldn’t stop talking...and her gorgeous mommy.

“How is she?”

When had self-obsessed Zach turned into a mind reader?

Gabe hadn’t forgotten the way Zach had flirted with Megan at the holiday party or that he’d gone over to her house to change her tire.

“None of your goddamned business.”

Zach looked amused as he sat back deeper in his cloth chair. “You don’t know, do you?” Shaking his head, his brother said, “Never even got in her pants, did you, before she kicked you to the curb?”

Gabe sprang from his seat so fast, he had surprise in his corner as he knocked Zach off his chair and onto the ice. The sound of his brother’s skull hitting the ice was the best thing he’d experienced in days.

“I’m going to tear you apart, asshole,” he promised in a menacing voice.

Zach was in great shape, but Gabe’s career meant he had twenty pounds of muscle on him.

“Uncle.”

But Gabe still owed his brother for the flirting and the tire, so even though he made it seem like he was getting off Zach, he made sure to get in one more head-slam, along with a knee to the kidney.

“You’re all losing your minds.” His brother groaned as he lay there on the ice even though Gabe was back in his chair. “Chase. Marcus. Should have figured you’d be next.”

“Stay away from her,” Gabe warned. “Megan is off limits.”

Zach slowly sat up and rubbed his head with both hands, then grinned despite the pain he was clearly in. “Maybe,” he conceded, “but you’ve got to admit she has a really fine ass.”

Gabe knew his brother had started with one broken-down old car and turned Sullivan Autos into a megabucks business, but right now he was the dumbest person on the planet.

“I warned you.” Gabe cracked his knuckles and prepared to mess up Zach’s face.

His brother held up his hands again. “A joke! It was a joke. Swear to God, I didn’t think you’d go here again. Not after what happened with what’s-her-name.”

Here he’d thought Megan’s dead husband was the only ghost between them. Now, suddenly, he realized Kate’s was too, just as much.

“When Marcus was going through all that bullshit with Nicola, I thought the rest of us agreed on the score. That it’s better to keep things easy. Casual. Fun. Especially you. After what happened that time with that girl who tried to kill herself in your house.”

Zach looked as earnest as he got and Gabe knew he believed the bullshit he was spouting wholeheartedly. A week ago, Gabe would have been right there with him.

“Megan’s different.”

“Another one bites the dust.” Looking disgusted, his brother made the sound of a plane falling from the sky and crashing hard.

Gabe stared at his brother, but he didn’t see him.

Was that how Megan’s husband had died? Who had told her? When? How?

And how had she told Summer?

Damn it, Megan had kicked him out of her life before they could talk.

Gabe wanted to know more about her. Not just about her husband’s death, but what she ate for breakfast. Did she like to hike or was she more of a biker? Did she have any siblings? Where did her parents live, and did she have a good relationship with them?

Yes, Megan had kicked him out of her room that morning, but he was equally to blame for their breakdown of communication. Because just as he’d barely been able to see her through the haze of thick smoke when he’d found her in her apartment two months ago, even though he’d seen her several times since, he hadn’t wanted to let himself see her for who she really was. Instead, he’d told himself it was smarter to force himself to look at her through the thick haze of the smoke created by his ex’s crazy behavior.

He hadn’t been able to forget what she’d said when they’d been making love in her hotel bed. Please love me. Were they simply heat-of-the-moment words...or something more?

Strong enough words, from a deep enough place, to finally start cutting through the dark, heavy smoke that lingered from his past.

And hers, too.

Gabe closed up his chair, grabbed his pole and tackle box, and headed back to his truck.

“Where the hell are you going?”

Gabe revved the engine and Zach had to scramble after him to throw himself and his fishing gear into the truck before it skidded out across the snowy terrain.

Ignoring his brother, Gabe went through what he knew so far. Megan had drawn her line in the ice and she didn’t plan on budging. And he’d understood where she was coming from—had been right there with her, in fact.

But that was when Gabe hadn’t planned on skating over his line, either.

Not until he’d just realized—with some help from his asshat of a brother—that the ice was always shifting.

No one had ever told him just to go away like she had. And, sure, his pride was involved. So yes, he couldn’t deny that getting Megan to come around was a challenge. But just as he wouldn’t deny that he thrived on challenges, that facing down untenable situations that other people would go out of their way to avoid was precisely what he lived for, Megan was far more than a challenge.

She was a flesh-and-blood woman that he not only desired, but that he admired...and liked a great deal.

More than he’d ever liked anyone before.

Liked her so much, in fact, that Zach was probably right on the money and like might already be starting to head toward something a whole lot bigger than that. They skidded around an icy corner so fast his brother cursed loudly as he grabbed onto the door to keep from slamming his thick head into the windshield.

Feeling alive again for the first time since he’d walked out of Megan’s hotel room four days ago, Gabe just grinned.

He already knew with utter certainty that Megan wasn’t even close to being like Kate.

Now all he had to do was find a way to convince her that he wasn’t at all like her ghost husband.

It was time to fight fire with fire.

His grin widened at the firefighting cliché as he slammed on the brakes in front of Zach’s cabin and all but shoved his brother out into the snow.

Gabe already missed Megan and Summer like crazy...which meant that it was long past time to put his brand new plan into action.

Chapter Sixteen

Megan was beyond glad Gabe hadn’t called her. For a while there in her hotel room, when he was saying they should “discuss” things, she’d actually thought he wanted more than just one night of sex with her. That he’d wanted a relationship.

He must have come to his senses after the memories of the hot sex had worn off.

A guy like him was probably used to tons of hot sex, she figured. Unlike her. Because even though she been smart and put a stop to ever doing that—him—again, she couldn’t stop replaying their lovemaking in her head. Over and over. Not just at night when she was safely under her covers, either, but throughout the day her mind kept drifting to Gabe and his mouth and his hands and his—

“Mommy, are you listening to me?”

She looked into her daughter’s big green eyes, irritated with the lack of attention she was getting. “Sorry, honey. Do you need help choosing what else to pack? Do you have enough jeans and long sleeves just in case it’s cold in LA?”

Just as they did every New Year’s, her parents were taking Summer to Disneyland for a few days. Megan would have gone with them—roller coasters were just about the only scary thing she let herself do anymore because she knew they were regularly safety tested by on-staff engineers—but she was still behind with a couple of her clients after dealing with the fire and moving and resettling into their new apartment. A few days to herself where she could work every minute that she wasn’t sleeping was precisely what she needed to get back on track so that she could start the New Year on steady footing.

Yet again, she gave silent thanks that Gabe hadn’t come after her. A clean slate was exactly what she needed with her job and her love life.

Not, of course, that love had anything to do with what had happened between them. It had just been hot sex, she reminded herself sternly.

“I was wondering about Daddy.”

Megan’s careening thoughts all centered back down on her daughter again. She smiled and pulled her little girl onto her lap on the bed.

“What do you want to know?” When Summer didn’t answer right away, Megan said, “He loved to blow kisses right here on your tummy.”

She grabbed Summer and kissed her before she could squirm away, laughing.

“I know that,” Summer said, “but was he big and strong?”

Megan stopped and blinked at her. “You know what he looked like. Yes, he was big and strong.” They often went through old photo albums together, so this wasn’t news.

“Do you think he’d have taught me to snowboard like Gabe did?”

Megan had to work like crazy to keep her expression normal. She wasn’t the only one comparing Gabe to David.

“Of course he would have. And he would have been just as proud of how quickly you picked it up as we were.” She caught her slip too late, realized she shouldn’t have said we, that she should simply have said how proud she was of Summer.

She watched her daughter chew on that information for a few seconds. “Do you think Grams and Gramps will let me ride the Tower of Terror this year?”

Megan should have been used to the way seven-year-old brains jumped from one subject to another, but it took her a beat longer than it should have to respond. “I’m sure you’ll find a way to convince them.” She got up off her daughter’s bed and murmured, “I’m going to go make sure their plane is on time.” Megan needed a little alone time to process the strength of the relationship that had already formed between her daughter and the firefighter she’d shoved all the way out of their lives just a few days earlier.

Before she’d even left the room, Summer was back in her small closet, pulling out clothes and shoving them into her already overstuffed suitcase.

* * *

They met her parents at San Francisco International Airport an hour later and as she hugged her mother and father, she suddenly wished she had decided to chuck in her work for a few more days so that she could lose herself in the magic of Disney with her family.